It’s mandatory to take the vaccine. And it’ll cost you 4x as much.
Pfizer is looking to raise the price of its COVID-19 vaccines in the United States by up to four times once Washington’s purchase program ends, according to the company’s U.S. president, Angela Lukin.
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is presently provided free for all Americans by the U.S. government. Next year, when the U.S. public health emergency expires, the COVID-19 vaccine market will move to private insurance. The federal government is paying roughly $30 per dose for the
Pfizer vaccine
. When the government purchase program shuts down, Lukin expects a dose to be priced around $110 to $130.
“We are confident that the U.S. price point of the COVID-19 vaccine reflects its overall cost-effectiveness and ensures the price will not be a barrier for access for patients,”
Lukin
said
, according to Reuters.The Pfizer executive is expecting the vaccine purchase to transfer to the private sector, “at the earliest,” by first quarter 2023. According to Lukin, the vaccine will continue to be available for free for people who have government or private insurance.
In 2021, Pfizer made almost $37 billion through COVID-19 vaccine sales, with overall revenues doubling, to $81.3 billion. The company is expecting revenues to reach $98 billion to $102 billion this year.
According to the UK-based organization Global Justice Now, Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot was developed by BioNTech and supported by a €375 million ($366 million) grant from the German government and €100 million ($97 million) in debt financing from the European Investment Bank, a publicly owned entity.
“We’ve let Pfizer withhold this essential medical innovation from much of the world, all the while ripping off public health systems with an eye-watering mark-up,”
said Tim Bierley, a pharmaceutical campaigner at the group, according to
The Guardian
.